October 22, 2018 - Veterans and Rookies

I’m planning on this week’s devo being short, as I am typing on my phone many thousand feet in the air... we are on a trip to serve in the Dominican Republic in outreach to a few different villages. This trip consists of a bunch of guys that our InBounds staff gets to mentor in using sports as an outreach tool.

Lately we have had a big focus on mentoring within our ministry; with the addition of a new intern, and also the addition of artist development through our music outreach... 

Mentoring (coaching) is another way of saying discipleship... simply put, we all should have someone to follow and learn from... and we should be leading the way for others.

Biblically speaking I will give a simple warning when it comes to this: Be careful who you follow! And remember someone’s eyes are on you...

A glaring example was in the news this weekend. After an opening night loss, Los Angeles Lakers guard Rajon Rondo talked about the realization that he (and other veterans like LeBron James) needed to remember their role to be that of teachers to the young Lakers crew...

In a game two loss, Rondo was ejected for a fight in which it appears he spit on an opponent and then got into a fisticuffs..,

Shortly after he started throwing blows, one of the young Lakers decided to join in and also got ejected. Interestingly, afterwards other players were saying they had never seen that side of the young player... MAYBE IT WAS BECAUSE OF WHO HE WAS FOLLOWING?

Here is a simple truth found in the Proverbs:

“Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go, Lest you learn his ways And set a snare for your soul.”

Proverbs 22:24-25 NKJV

http://bible.us/114/pro.22.24-25.nkjv

I’ll close with some lyrics from a song I wrote years ago called “Little Eyes” (not from a sports perspective but mentoring crosses into all areas of life)...

“Mommy, Daddy, do you fear the Lord, do you take care of your home?

What they see, is what they will be when your little ones are grown...”

Who are you watching? Who is watching you?